Tuesday 18th January.
Tears, mourning, pain, loss
Was all I felt when all the patients in the hospital were trying to soothe me.
When Alex broke out the news I fell to the ground and a barrage of screams came out of my lungs. Victoria who was obviously not involved in all the drama tried to tell me pull myself together.
And there came the backlash.
"Who the hell do you think you are to tell me to pull myself together Victoria? You didn't even know a damn thing about Mona. So why the hell do you have to be here? Fine you drove me here and I thank you for that. But it doesn't mean you have to waltz in here like you did 6 years ago and screw my life over!" I said not pausing the whole time.
All this time, the whole hospital, the nurses and patients were in on this drama that ensued.
Victoria already in tears, ran down the staircase and out of the hospital.
Mostly the things that hurt me the most that afternoon, was the fact i just lost my best friend forever, and the rapid stares I received from people.
Downcast and still on the ground, Alex picked me up, dusted my knees, put his arm around my shoulder and we walked out of the hospital.
As he clicked the car key buttons to enable him open the car, he walked over to my side and opened up the door for me.
"You wanna go over to Geronimo to have some milkshakes?" He asked with his ever so comforting smile. And I responded with a soft nod.
All through the car ride, the was no exchange of words or outbursts of feelings. We got to the diner and grabbed a table at our usual spot in the corner of the restaurant.
After placing our order of a couple of milkshakes and burgers, Alex simply stared at me.
"Lay it on me." He said.
"What?"
"Lay out your frustrations. Pour it out on me"
"Alex..." I said looking away.
"Look, Connie. I'm practically all you have left. I can't just sit by, watch by a distance and see you destroy yourself. After all before Mona came into our lives it was just us." He said with tears clouding his eyes. But none of those droplets of tears dared to fall.
Since he was sitting right beside me, not once did I look straight into his eyes. Forgetting that this was a public diner, I slammed my whole body into his muscular figure.
And a whole stream of tears flooded down my eyes and followed by loud whimpering. Really loud whimpering.
"It's okay. I'll always be here for you. I will be the ear that will listen to your every problem, a shoulder for you to lean on, anything you need. In fact, I'm always here for you." He said reassuring me with a brilliant smile that spelled confidence.
"Thanks Alex. You're practically all I have left so you'd better treat me right." I said grinning as wide as i ever have since in a long while.
Alex ruffled my hair, (a usual practice of his) and went over to the counter to pay the checks.
When he came back, he held my hand and took me out of Geronimo then drove me home. When we reached my front porch I turned towards him.
"Thanks for tonight, Alex."
"Oh, it's no problem at all." He said smiling.
"You're going to school tomorrow right?" Alex asked while turning on his ignition.
"Honestly, I don't know. I guess it depends on the mood."
"If you're going, just give me a call. Okay?"
After he left, I turned to the direction of the front door just to see my mom staring.
Then she came right to where I was standing and wrapped me in a large hug.
"Constance dear. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine mom. All thanks to Alex. He's been a huge help. And I think tomorrow I'd like to go over to Mona's house to meet her parents. " I said clearly sad even after the whole piller of support symbol that Alex had been.
"That would be nice honey. I made mac and cheese for dinner though." My Mom said.
"I'm full. I and Alex just ate."
"Really? Junk food?"
"Yeah, I really am full. And I'm pretty tired so I gotta head to bed." I said striding past her.
"Good night dear." My Mom said sighing once again.
"Night"
When I got into my room, I fell onto by bed and crashed into my two giant pink pillows that my mom made me have so much.
Then the tears ran wild. And for some reason while I cried, the memories both good and bad continued to roll into my head.
The time we got into a big fight and had the whole school involved. We literally almost exchanged blows right until our homeroom teacher seized us by the ear and threw us into detention. Then Mona and I burst into a fit of laughter both at the same time.
I also remember when my Dad died she refused to leave. When I had sleepless nights she wouldn't sleep and we would talk about gross boy bands. I knew with the whole of my heart that I wouldn't get over my grieving for Mona.
Slowly, I fell asleep.
**********
In the morning, my pillows were damp from the tears the night before. I smiled at myself remembering only the positives and not the negative aspects of what happened.
Feeling miserable, I dressed up and got ready andI noticed that my raven brown hair was due for a haircut.
My Mom was already gone, so I just decided to sleep in maybe, or just binge watch Netflix. Then I saw the note. Rather, two notes on the fridge door.
'Please try your best to go to school.'
'And also, I just got an urgent call from the office saying I was needed urgently, so please take care. There's some money on the kitchen counter please manage it.
Thanks, Mommy loves you
XOXO'
Sighing quietly, I called Alex to come pick me up.
Minutes later, Alex arrived in his beautiful red convertible that I love so much.
"Morning. Your hair's a mess and you look shrivelled. Don't tell me you cried yourself to sleep last night."
"Can't help it Alex. Remembering the past and all makes getting over things harder. And you? How do you look so refreshed?"
"It's a good day today. Why wouldn't I be? Now get in, were late already."
I shrugged and jumped into the front seat right beside him and we drove off.
After we alighted the convertible, I walked hand in hand with Alex on entering the school grounds.
I could practically feel the stares of both seniors and sophomores burn through our backs.
"Think nothing about what people think. No one is going to be confident enough to come up to you and tell you anything." He said as if reading my mind.
Then it happened. I and Victoria's eyes crossed and she tried to wave a hello, but me being me decided to snob her.
"But Connie."
"What?"
"What really is your deal with Victoria? I mean all she did-"
"Not now Alex. Please." I interrupted, clearly not wanting any drama that morning.
The warning bell was rung so Alex bade me goodbye and I had to go attend my Literature class.
Literature was practically my favourite class out of the ones I offered because our teacher, Miss Hazel was practically the nicest and not to mention the most beautiful teacher in the whole of Norfolk High. She gave A's like they were sheets of papers. That's why people took her classes for granted.
When I got in I took my seat at the back of the class to dispel every form of attention pointed at me.
'Good morning class. Today we'll be talking about the novel we started last class called ; A Midsummer night's dream. We will continue from Act II scene I. Gerald will you do the honours of summarizing that chapter for us...
As the class dragged on my eyelids became heavy and then my head on the desk.
The bell for lunch rang after a while that I had been sleeping.
"The class is over. Constance? Please meet me at my office later. Thanks" with that she left the class.
Since I didn't really have anything to do and wasn't absolutely in the mood for lunch I decided to go to her office. I mean what's the worst that could happen?
I knocked on her office door and she told me to come in. Her office was filled with lots of plants and flowers. On her desks she had a weird collection of kaleidoscopes. And her regular shelves of Shakespeare novels and poems.
"Hello Constance. How are you today?"
"I'm fairly okay, Miss Hazel."
"Your name reminds me of Constance in the novel King John by Shakespeare. Very inspiring novel. You should read it sometime."
"Okay. Why did you actually call me here Miss Hazel?" I asked.
"Well I know it's alot to ask of you, but I want you to tutor Nolan Wesley."
"Nolan?"
"Yeah, Nolan Wesley the football captain. Coach Kleats told me he wasn't doing well in Calculus. And he needs a passing grade before he can play in the Homecoming game."
"But.... why did Coach Kleats tell you to meet me and not the calculus teacher?"
"Quite the inquisitive one aren't you?" She said with a smirk.
"Because Nolan is an exceptional student in my course, almost as good as you in fact. But his calculus is not close to good. That's why I recommended you to Coach Kleats."
What a drag. I've never seen myself as a tutor before. I can see that this will turn into a huge drag.
When school closed, I walked towards the parking lot, hoping to walk home when Alex called out my name.
"Connie! Wait up!" He called out while sprinting to where I stood by his car.
"What Alex?" I asked.
"I've got something to show you."
"And what the hell's that?"
"You'll see. Now get in the car"
*************
With no words all through the ride, we arrived at an uncompleted warehouse. He stepped out and took a shovel out of the boot of the car.
Then he opened up the door to my side of the car.
"Let's go Connie." He said stretching out his right hand towards me.
"What? Where are we?" I asked.
"Just trust me Connie. Let's go."
We entered the uncompleted warehouse and there were stubs of cigarettes that laid on most parts of the floor. And looking up, there was this open space, instead of a roof. The place was utterly tattered. Cobwebs all around that my head scooped most of it.
"I'm sure you know who smoked all of these." Alex said turning back to me.
"Who? The construction workers?"
"It was Mona" Then there came my face of serious ignorance and disbelief. I knew Mona hadn't quit smoking. It was meant to be a secret from Alex, but I guess she told him everything.
"Really??" I asked.
"Yeah. I didn't know she had been doing this so much that it became an addiction. Did you know?" He asked.
"Nope. Had no idea." I lied.
"You know, Mona had this smoking problem because her parents always fought and argued constantly. So she used it as a way to cool off." He said as we walked through the building looking for a door to the backyard.
"I guess she had a lot of problems that we ignored." I said actually referring to myself.
"But, why are we here? I mean you brought me into an old cobweb infested warehouse without telling me a thing." I asked.
"Patience, Connie. I'll explain after we find what I'm looking for."
After we finally found a door leading to the back of the building, he looked for a spot that seemed dug previously and began digging.
It took a while, but he eventually brought out an old shoe box.
"We're going to the roof." He said almost so excited.
"But there's practically no roof. It's just like an open courtyard." I said, clearly pointing out the obvious.
"You'll see."
"I really hate this side of you, Alex. Honestly. "
When we reached the rooftop, there was a caved out shelter that look dishevelled but showed alot that Mona stood for. There was the poster for the boy band that we both hated, her old backpack and some magazines.
We used some of the old crates that were there as stools.
"Here we go" Alex said while slowly picking up the cover of the box.
Tapes. The content of the box was cassette tapes. And they were all labelled in an order. Luckily we found a stereo inside her backpack and we put the first tape in.
Scrchhh.....
'Hello Punks. It's Mona. I'm pretty sure I'm dead by the time you are listening to this, so I'd like to take you guys in for a treat. A delicious one to be exact'.